Check your policies - just in case

[Deleted User]

Hi folks - I strongly suggest that you all nip off now and have a quick check over the cover you all have on your life insurance policies which you will have taken out over the years to cover mortgages, illness etc. This is not an attack on the insurance companies, or on the various advisors - quite the opposite, in fact.

Over the years we have moved house a couple of times and have various policies in force - the usual stuff about paying off the mortgage if either I or Mrs WR pass away before our time, or if one of us is ill there will be income so that we are not out on the street.

A few months ago, one of our kids was taken seriously ill - and I do mean "seriously" - the details are not important for the purposes of this post, but lets just say blue flashing light job, scans, 3 hospitals, operation, rehab, months in hospital, and so on.

Completely out of the blue one evening we got a phone call from our financial advsior - he was asking if we wanted a check over our financial status, etc, etc the usual stuff. I said that we weren't really up for it at the moment and explained what had happened - there was a silence, and he said that he was at home, so didn't have all his files with him but that he thought that our kids also had "free" cover for "critical illness" and that we should check; he thought that our son was covered by the policies. We applied; they paid up - so far 2 of the three policies have shelled out and the third is expected to do so soon.

The upshot is that our son is doing really well, back at school part time and getting stronger all the time and it looks as if that when out first endowment matures in about 15 moths time, instead of paying off less than a third of the motrgage, by using the insurance money we will be mortgage free.

My point is that these policies were taken out between 13 and 23 years ago and if I ever knew what "add ons" they had, I had long forgotten. There is a time limit for claims and we nearly missed it, as understandably, our minds were elsewhere - had it not been for the phone call, we would not have claimed.

I hope that none of you are ever in the position of being able to make a claim under these circumstances. I am only saying that you should find out NOW what cover you might have tucked away in a decades old policy, so that, God forbid, if the time comes, you can claim.

We will be able to use the money that we will not be paying off each month on the mortgage on our kids instead and having no mortgage will make a big differece to our family's lives. I'd trade it all to take my son's health back to the way it was in early May, though.

CHECK THOSE POLICIES!

Cheers,

WR

Labman_2

First & foremost I'm so pleased that your son is on the road to hopefully a full recovery.....money is of secondary importance when something like this happens....secondly that's what I call a RESULT!

[Deleted User]

Hi Labman - thanks for that - I was in two minds about whether or not I should have made the original post - I confess that I was half expecting some responses along the lines of "profiting from a relative's illness" or similar.

However, with the site's recent problems, it's early yet!

To anyone contemplating making such a reply I can only say that there is no such thing as a parents' manual for dealing with a seriously ill child, and nothing anyone could say to me could be worse than being in hospital watching an unconscious child linked up to all these machines. If anyone out there is in that position, our thoughts are with you. The main thrust of the message is that you might have cover you didn't know you had. My ignorance could have cost us tens of thousands, and would have if our advisor hadn't called us when he did - two months later and our claims might have been time barred.

Thanks again.

WR

beemuzed

Glad to hear your son is making good progress and can't imagine anyone making the sort of comment you feared - after all, this is surely what insurance is for? I agree that we do easily forget what policies we have and add-ons, etc. Not sure I know ours off top of my head, but will check!
Sadly, we lost our eldest son as a teenager many years ago, so do know the hartache you've been through - hope things get back to normal for your familiy asap

[Deleted User]

Cheers beemuzed!

Of course we will now be faced with the "what to do with the cash" issues but with this site and the forums, how can we go wrong?

WR